


Stronger Than Gods

by CassidyLeora



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Big brother Vanitas, Book Series: Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Camp Half-Blood (Percy Jackson), Canon-Typical Violence, Child Abuse, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Found Family, Isolation, M/M, Minor Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Vanitas (Kingdom Hearts), Physical Abuse, Slow Burn, Sora and Vanitas Are Siblings (Kingdom Hearts), Suicidal Thoughts, Xehanort is Hades, and a horrible father, it'll get fun and happy i promise, learning to love, the Kingdom Hearts Percy Jackson AU you've been waiting for
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-17 10:28:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28723608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CassidyLeora/pseuds/CassidyLeora
Summary: "I needed to get back to the only family I had left, back to the life that was ripped away from me.If this is what it took to get stronger, then I would do it.If abuse and blood is what it took to get revenge on the world, then so be it."
Relationships: Vanitas/Ventus (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 22





	Stronger Than Gods

**Author's Note:**

> Here it finally is, a year in the making: Kingdom Hearts; Percy Jackson Edition!  
> I wrote this in 1st person, to mimic the original style of the novels. Same for chapter titles! Having said that, you don't actually need to have read Percy Jackson before reading this.  
> Please enjoy Vanitas' suffering!

Hell really isn’t that bad.

Sure, you’ve got to learn to block out the echoing sounds of screams from the Fields of Punishment every night when you try to sleep (not to mention it’s always nighttime), and there’s the small detail that the main exit is guarded by a giant 3 headed dog (she’s a sweetheart, really), but once you get past the smell of burning flesh it’s really not as bad as I thought.

Not having another living soul in the underworld may be haunting to some, but it’s freeing to me. Being alone is something I seek out, the few moments of peace before it starts again—before HE finds me again and drags me back to the palace.

Yes, the only reason the underworld is bad isn’t because of the shadows that are known to eat humans if you get too close or the fields of mines and barbed wire, but instead the man who rules it all.

Hades.

The God of the Dead, King of the Underworld, with tanned skin and a black metal crown on his bald head, robes of blood red, woven with writhing souls who are desperate for their freedom even centuries later, his cruel golden eyes like the flash of a dagger before plunging, like the pit of a volcano ready to explode over the top and burn the world to ash. When I was younger, I used to think if I looked back into those eyes then I would be frozen to stone like a basilisk. The many times my jaw was wrenched upwards, forced to stare into the voids inches away from my face, cruelly glinting and dangerous is a memory I will never forget.

The worst part—the reason I hated those eyes the most—is that I have the same exact ones.

It was like looking into a mirror, the glowing gold, the barely contained rage echoed in my own. Though, there must be some difference—I’ve never seen his widen with fear like mine have, never seen his wince in pain or brim with tears. I must be at least a little more human than him, just a little less of a monster than the King of Hell himself. At least, that’s the numb hope I couldn’t help but have.

I was his son, obviously. The ‘Prince of Darkness’, according to Hades.

“You’ll be the strongest one yet,” he’d say atop his throne, having lifted nothing more than his hand to throw me into the obsidian wall. My vision swam with fire, his words distorted by the ringing in my ears, turning it even more grating than usual. “The most powerful demigod to live. My prince of pure darkness, I’ll make a king out of you yet.”

I had passed out soon after that, only to awake who knows how long later in the same place with the torches burning low. He’d left me there, and I limped back to my room alone.

Lying awake at night, listening to the resounding screams of ghosts, I knew the minute I drifted to a fitful sleep the usual nightmares would come. Not once in all these months (had it been years? There’s no way to tell how much time passes down here) had I gotten a good night of rest, instead waking up covered in sweat or sitting up with the dagger hid under my pillow already in my hand, only to find a room just as devoid of life as before.

The candle by the bed was the only relief—if I could focus on the light enough, I could forget the shadows pressing in on all sides, threatening to suffocate me. In fact, the darkness seemed eager to. To finally snuff me out for good, the stretching empty space around the grand bed fit for, well, a prince, teeming with malice. Everything was dark and reflective, the arching windows bringing no more relief from the shadows, instead carrying in more from the swarming fields of souls far below the tower.

I curled in on myself, as tight as could be, knowing I would have healed myself by tomorrow only to crawl back here like a wounded dog once more. I stopped using the shadows to heal myself long ago, (not only just because I wasn’t very good at it) hoping to bleed out and end this once and for all, but woke up the next morning to find the shadows around me had done it anyway. Like this prison itself knew he needed me alive, so it couldn’t afford to let me go and off myself.

The training suit Hades forced me to wear clung to my skin uncomfortably tight, like a second skin, taking away as much visible human skin as possible, making it easier to believe I really was just another one of Hades’ monsters—one of his ambling creatures with sharpened teeth or another of his preying vultures with eyes of poison, eager for the kill.

I uncurled the barest amount, the pain in my abdomen a stark reminder of the day, and tried to pull off my gloves. With the shaking in my bones, it took a few tries, but finally my desperation won out and the buckles fell loose, exposing pale human flesh.

The relieved breath that escaped me was followed by a dull ache where Hades’ fire had struck my hollow chest before dinnertime.

I flexed my fingers, making sure there were still the harmless nails of a human instead of claws, that the skin was only bruised by gripping my blade too tight and not turning into monstrous scales.

Slumping back even further into myself, I hid myself securely under the covers. I knew, in this place, blankets could do nothing to protect me, but pretending like I was hidden made me feel just safe enough to breathe a little easier, to finally rest my head onto the silk pillow and stare at the nothingness behind my eyelids.

My breath was shuddering, no matter how much I tried to even it out. How pathetic I felt hearing it, the sound deafening under the blankets with me, the weakness I tried desperately to stuff down, forcing its way past trembling lips only here in the stifling silence far away from other eyes.

If I could be stronger, I could leave this place. If I was, maybe Hades would let me go, would let me eat more, would hurt me less. The few times I’d pleased him by taking out a field of harpies or deflected his orbs of dark fire for the 40th time in a row, he would let me head to bed early, or walk out to see Cerberus. Not much of a reward, but anything was better than the normality of stumbling back to my chambers with a gash taken out of my flesh or a broken bone.

Besides, going to see Cerberus gave me the rare opportunity to be far away from the palace, the closest I could get to freedom. I knew the three headed dog would never let me leave, no matter how much she enjoyed the small scratches I gave her or the occasional bits of dinner I’d sneak out to feed her (if Hades treated his own kid like a dog, I couldn’t imagine how little food or attention she must be getting from him). I had tried to escape, once. Tried using all the strength I had to dart past her to the entrance tunnel, only to be ripped backwards by her gnashing maw, one of her teeth gone straight through my shoulder in her attempt to stop me. The next time I’d come to visit her, she seemed sorry, whimpering and giving me the look with her 6 eyes that seemed to say, “ _he made me do it_ ”. I stayed far from the entrance to the tunnel after that.

I couldn’t blame her. You can’t say no to Hades. Here I was, shivering under the sheets like some cowering animal, as I did every night, after yet another day full of obeying his every command.

_“Faster! You must be faster, Vanitas!”_

_“Use the darkness. The more you resist, the stronger it will pull you!”_

_“You pathetic boy.”_

He didn’t accept failure and didn’t allow disobedience. If you didn’t meet his expectations, he had no problem kicking you to the ground or not feeding you for the week, locking you downstairs with wolves weakened by starvation and a single weapon. I should have learned quick not to fight back, but I just can’t. I can’t afford to let go, to give in, to become the disgusting monster he orders me to be.

I have to get back… Get back to…

My hand blindly reached out, feeling the silken sheets before finding the small object tucked under the pillow, right next to a dagger and small stash of food I smuggled in for the next time he decided to send me away without dinner.

The small plush rabbit was small enough to fit in my palm, no bigger than my hand, with two flopping ears barely hanging on and button eyes that drooped from all the trauma it’d been through. A fitting parallel to the one who held it. My fingertips absently touched the worn purple material it was made out of, the stuffing long since matted down.

My brother had given it to me, years ago, before any of this mess started. When our biggest worry was which bully I’d have to fight for him in middle school or where we’d go for our weekly walk with the little free time mom had. Before she was killed by a Titan, before we fought our way all the way across the country to this supposed safe haven, before we learned the truth of who we are and the fate we were destined to fall prey to.

Back then, Sora had trouble pronouncing most words. It was a bad combination: his difficulty with enunciating combined with speaking faster than a bolt of lightning. I would often have to ‘translate’ for mom what he was trying to say, seeing as she wasn’t as fluent in ‘Sora’ as I apparently was. He was the kind of little brother who never shut up, going on about video games or a ridiculous story he’d thought of, but it was a good fit for the most part—he liked to talk, I didn’t. I didn’t mind sitting in silence, but he couldn’t stand it.

I remember it vividly, the only thing left to hold onto.

“Bunny!” Sora had cried, bounding towards me with his hands behind his back while mom heaved in groceries from their trip out together. I tried to skirt past him to help out, but he was just as stubborn as me and stepped to the side of the hall to block my way.

The nickname was insufferable when he called me it anywhere in public, but the beaming smile on his face somehow stopped me from correcting him again.

“What?” I sighed, peering down at him, knowing from experience it was best to get whatever he wanted over with so I could be at least a little responsible in his place and help carry groceries inside.

With a clumsy flourish he showed me what he was hiding—a small purple rabbit that seemed handmade but new, the tag still attached to its paw with a ribbon.

“The hell’s that…” I muttered, quiet enough so mom wouldn’t hear the curse over her putting spices away in the kitchen cabinets.

“A bunny!” he exclaimed, thrusting it into my face, stretching up on his toes to reach. Despite being only a year apart, my growth spurt hit before his—something I taunted him with any chance I got.

“I know that, but what is it f-“

“It’s for you!”

He took my hand in his and forced me to hold it, “This old lady was selling it at the market. She said it’ll protect whoever I give it to, so it’ll keep you safe! Also, she had 1 eye, so she must know what she’s talking about.”

“She had what?”

“Mom said I was seeing things, but I swear she did!”

“…You’re so weird.”

But I’d taken the stupid rabbit stuffed animal anyway.

I kept it in my backpack all throughout our life, hiding it, keeping it safe as if, by extension, I could keep Sora safe. I suppose I didn’t have to, after all. Now he must be all grown up, wherever he is, but I can’t help but think of him crying in my lap in the back of the bus on our way to the next state over, his muffled sniffling drowned out to everyone but me by the rattling of the dirt roads, and all I could do is hold onto his shaking shoulder and hate myself even more for not being able to help him, cheer him up, not able to save mom when she was ripped to shreds right in front of him just hours earlier. I was helpless, weak, unable to protect those that needed me, unable to go up to that Titan and tear him apart with my own bare hands.

Hades wanted to use me for some plan he has, but I don’t care. I needed to be stronger to face that Titan again, to be able to fight these monsters like I fought the kids at school who tried to bully Sora.

It was my fault I was trapped here. I left Sora there at the camp alone, running off into the night after learning the truth of what I was, whose fault it was that mom’s dead, the one who did all of this. I fended for myself on the streets of New York, barely scraping by monsters that always seemed to sniff me out, getting an hour of sleep in wet alleyways before running for my life once more, searching for an entrance to lead me to _him_ , to the one who caused all of this.

I was young and stupid and couldn’t sit around a campfire while the reason she was dead, the reason Sora cried every night, was still out there. I thought to save Sora I needed to leave him, I thought I could… what? Take on a god on my own? I came marching down to the Underworld and Hades seemed all too pleased as he easily stopped my attack on him and pinned me to the wall by my throat.

I could almost believe his smile was genuine, the spark of curiosity in his eyes real as he examined me up and down.

The small knife I’d found in a dumpster was knocked from my grasp with a wave of his other hand, and my flailing feet failed to kick him through the tears burning in my eyes. I’d gripped his hand around my throat, intent to suffocate me, until all I saw were the gold of my own eyes staring back at me.

“ _You!_ ” I choked out, a strangled sob escaping my throat full of burning razors. I bared my teeth in a snarl at the hint of vulnerability. “ _It’s your fault!_ ”

He only smiled wider. “Ah, welcome home, my son.”

And ever since then, I could never go back to that camp, could never go back to Sora or see daylight or hear a sound other than ghostly moans or children screaming.

It’s his fault I’m like this.

His fault that, after all this time, I’m so numb to everything, more monster than man, losing myself more and more each day. Whoever I was before, he was making me extinguish him slowly until all that remained was an empty husk of unimaginable dark power for him to use as he pleases.

But I wouldn’t.

I would _never._

I couldn’t, not when there was so much unfinished, when Sora was out there waiting for me, maybe in danger, not when the Titan was still alive.

I needed to get back to the only family I had left, back to the life that was ripped away from me.

If this is what it took to get stronger, then I would do it. If abuse and blood is what it took to get revenge on the world, then so be it.

▅▄▃▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▂▃▄▅

I sat alone at breakfast for quite a while the next day, healed up externally but the damage done mentally irreversible. The plate of toast and ham on a glistening black plate materialized before me, but I knew better than to even sneak a single bite. Instead, I gazed down at it without really seeing anything at all, clenching and unclenching my gloved hands set on my knees, the untrimmed hair falling against the bridge of my nose—as eating was the only time it was acceptable to take off my mask, otherwise I absolutely had to wear in his presence. 

I probably hadn’t eaten in a day or two now—I couldn’t be sure, the number of kicks to my head had probably caused some kind of permanent damage—memory issues—something like that.

Finally, he strode into the room, arms crossed behind his hunched back.

Hades took his place at the head of the otherwise empty table, far from my place at the other end. His chair was like a throne, as if he needed it to be any more imposing.

He silently lifted his knife to cut into the meat on his plate, and with it came the permission for me to eat.

But I didn’t.

My eyes fixed on the edge of the plate across from me. The surface was like metal, reflecting my own blank expression back to me. I never looked at myself, disgusted with what I found there. The darkness under my eyes were like messy bruises, my skin paler than ever due to lack of sunlight, and my eyes, once full of fire, appeared void of all emotion at that moment. That stark gold, that hideous yellow, just like…

“Vanitas.”

My name was an order, one I ignored, blinking down at myself, the rough edges of my dark suit biting into the palms of my hands at the tone.

“ _Son._ ”

My eyes jerked upwards and peered across at the same eyes, fixed on me, a warning in them.

Mine held a warning of my own, no doubt, but he didn’t seem at all phased.

“Why don’t you eat?” he continued, unbothered, “You’ll need your strength for training today. We’ll be going down to the fields this time.”

Not the fields again. Never again.

“I’m not your son.” I spat, the spike of fear thinly veiled behind the venom.

“Oh? Then what are you?”

I grit my teeth, mind turning and turning for a reply, desperate for an answer.

_What am I?_

_Nothing._

_Darkness._

_A monster._

_Weak._

“As I thought. Now eat.”

His order was not to be refused.

But I did.

With only a single twitch of my hand as warning, I slipped the dagger from my boot and launched it across the table directly at his face.

It would have struck, too, if it wasn’t an obsidian blade, one that he stopped in midair easily.

He grinned wickedly at me over the top of the blade’s glinting edge, “Dear boy, I thought we’d learned this lesson the last time you attempted to stab me at the dinner table. When was that, last week?”

“Guess I need a reminder,” I hissed through gritted teeth, somewhere between a returning smile and a sneer.

The turned dagger he sent back towards me with a wave of his hand was faster than I threw it, a demigods speed nothing compared to a gods, and I narrowly dodged to the side as it whizzed past my shoulder.

I snatched up my helmet and shoved it over my head as I dove to the ground, enveloped by the shadows there as a blast of dark hell-fire shot to where I’d just been sitting.

The shadows curled around me until I was invisible, and I slunk through them, watching him from the wall, my body dissolved like liquid until I was indistinguishable from the blackness.

He was just as attuned to the darkness as I was, though, and his head tilted to where I was hiding with ease.

“Let’s not play hide and seek, shall we?” he chided, the annoyance apparent in his eyes as they glanced through me, trying to pinpoint my exact location behind the torches. His impatience, the wrath and punishment that was sure to come soon after he inevitably found me weighed heavily on me.

_The beating, not again, not again, please not again!_

_I acted out; do I deserve it?_

_No. No, I can’t handle any more._

_No more._

_I need to get out of here._

I rolled from the shadows, a distance from where he expected me, and leaped behind him with dark fire curling from my palms, shooting my arms out to clasp around his neck, but he was prepared for me, dashing to his feet to spin around, catching my outstretched wrist in his. His larger fingers threatened to crush my wrist and I cried out involuntarily, pulling against him with wobbling knees but he didn’t relent, only tightened his grip even further until I heard a crack, tears springing to my eyes as the sting burst up my arm

“This is _pathetic!_ ” he snarled, all pretense gone. “Years you’ve trained, and this is still the best you can do? You’re a coward, too afraid to use your full power.”

My jaw was clenched so tightly it felt as if my teeth would shatter. I met his glare evenly, blinking back the pain to defiantly stare up at him. The tears, the whimpering, it would all have to wait. There was no place for that, no place for weakness in front of him, in this world.

“I’ll _never_ be like you.” I forced out, each word dripping with spite.

He leaned ever closer, leering at me, pulling my cracked wrist closer as I struggled to get away, forcing back the choked sob of pain in my throat as a fresh wave of heat shot up my arm. He leveled his eyes with mine, matching golds burning dangerously. “Then you will never leave.”

My heart hammered, racing with fear like a rabbit running from a vicious dog, and on instinct a giant burst of black flames erupted from my other hand in a beam of energy, hitting his chest to shoot him backwards against the table, the plates rattling at the impact.

I dissolved into the shadows once more, my arm now going numb up to my elbow, panting harshly, swiftly scurrying away as he regained himself. A new smile was in place of his disapproving frown seconds earlier.

“That wasn’t bad, Vanitas,” he admitted, dusting off his slightly charred robes, the darkness curling off the ghostly faces like smoke. “Do you see how the pain makes you stronger? How all I do is to give you more power?”

His voice, his words, it was worse than the screaming, worse than my own thoughts. The noise was abrasive, pushing me further, threatening to send me over the edge. I willed the shadows to fill my wrist just enough to give me control over it again. A temporary fix, but temporary is all I needed.

“Let it loose, Vanitas!” he spun slowly in the dining hall, searching for where I’d hidden. “Prove to me, prove yourself what you’ve become!”

Silently, my black blade materialized in my shadowy hand, curling at the seams with power around the chains and gears that decorated the handle. The familiar weight filled me with strength

Using the shadows above the chandelier, I bled upwards before slashing downwards from above Hades, bringing the blade down in a wicked arc towards his back.

With a flutter, he dissolved into the darkness, shifting to the side. I launched from my crouch towards him again, swinging my sword across his form, forcing him to draw his own against mine.

The two crossed blades of black stopped my strike, so dark it seemed to suck in all light around it.

He chuckled. “That’s all you’ve got?”

I growled, my sword a blurry burst of attacks, the shadows making my movements quicker, stronger, harsher, until it threatened to envelope me fully.

He met me swing for swing, all defense against my aggression until he went for my stomach, cutting open the material of my suit, revealing the blood now quickly spilling out in the process.

A sharp pain erupted in my leg and I crumpled to the cold marble tiles, sword clattering to the ground and dissipating out of my reach. I couldn’t summon it again, my wrist screaming from the harsh clanging of our blows.

Hades stepped over me, using the tip of his blade to lift my chin from where I shook, curling around my bleeding side, trembling gloves soaked through. He tried to hide his slight panting, but I could see it in the way he moved his shoulders.

I can’t imagine what he saw in my face, in my eyes, the hatred and bitterness that overflowed there, but it must have disappointed him.

“So much anger, yet you still resist. You could be so much, my son,” he sighed out, tilted his head as I bared my teeth at the word. “If only you weren’t so _weak_.”

He raised his blade to strike me, panic flaring through my chest, crushing my throat and into my veins, burning all the way through.

_No more, gods, please, no more!_

The scream ripped through my numb chest; my mind not aware that it was actually me making the ragged, desperate sound. I felt my skin crackling with energy, with life, more than my body could handle until black creatures erupted from my back, cracking like whips and crawling like demons towards Hades, clawing towards him in a blurry streak of shadows and red eyes,

I felt their anger, the feelings of disgust and panic and fury that make up every cell in their monstrous body.

“There it is!” Hades cried out in apparent joy, though he barely managed to back away from their launched attacked, striking one creature down with his sword. “More, my son!”

The stinging pain as the creature dissolved to dust burned in my heart, causing me to groan, slumping forwards as more shadow monsters clawed their way from inside me and tore across the hall with the intent to kill, to _shred_ , leaving in their place a hollowness I was desperate to escape.

I hoped they did.

I hoped they ripped him apart just like my mom.

He struck down another giant creature, while I writhed on the floor, clawing with weak human fingers at the floor like it would let me bury myself under it, anything to end the pain, to end this.

“ _Stop!_ ” I begged, choking on the burning ash crawling its way up my throat, the fire flooding my chest.

“ _Give in!_ ”

Another one fell apart to wisps of shadows.

This time was silent.

My hand slammed down onto the marble floor, a fissure appearing, the crack echoing in the hall, louder than my heart pounding and my harsh panting, the sound of a swinging sword.

The ground shook, the crack climbing up the walls until, as I blacked out, the ceiling caved in.

  
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“-ey… Hey, are you okay?”

I began to hear the voice, filtering through my muddled brain like swimming through water, before I felt something touching me, a light tapping pressure on my shoulder.

When the _something_ that was touching me gently prodded around my wounded side, I willed myself to stir, desperately fighting through the fog and pain despite my body’s desperate desire to fall into the blackness again.

My hand shifted, the dull sting in my wrist helping to awake the rest of my senses until finally I drug my aching eyes open, seeing nothing for many seconds before I was able to focus on someone kneeling in front of where I lay on the floor. _Grass_ , my brain noted, having not seen such a thing in forever, but the stranger in front of me was leaning forwards to inspect my bleeding ribs, my self-defense instincts hushed it quickly.

I rolled backwards, the movement causing pain that I was all too used to ignoring, causing the stranger to hurry to their own feet, backing away a few steps as I agilely leapt to my feet. I launched myself towards them, closing the distance between us in the action, before slamming them against a nearby tree.

 _A tree, a real tree_ , my brain still chirped. I stuffed it down.

I didn’t have the strength or focus to summon my blade, but I didn’t need to. My gloved hand held tight to the enemy’s throat, smearing my own blood across the skin, effectively pinning them to the tree.

As my eyes continued to adjust in the dim light, I noticed the stranger’s bright blonde hair caught the starlight, glimmering in his wide blue eyes as they fixed on me with panic, his thin hands clawing at my arm, but his flailing proved useless, my grip firm, ready to crush without hesitation.

“Where am I? Who are you?” I growled, my throat scratchy and hoarse from screaming and disuse. With the immediate threat subdued, I glanced around, only being able to make out that we stood on a forest hilltop, the night sky above us swimming in my vision. I blinked repeatedly, desperate to clear it, to prove that what I was seeing was real, but my eyes only threatened to dim further. _A real night sky?_ Not a domed cave ceiling?

All that came out as a reply was a strangled choking sound, so I returned my focus to the stranger, loosening my hold only a little to allow him to speak, ensuring that my fingertips remained dug into his flesh as a warning.

“C-Camp Halfblood!” he managed, knuckles white where they still gripped my arm, attempting to pry it away with no success. “I’m V-“

“Camp Halfblood?” I repeated, the name familiar and foreign at once. I knew the word. I forced my thoughts to move faster than their current sluggish tread, the boys fearful face blurring in and out. Camp Halfblood was where… My tongue was thick, but I made it move. “Is… Is Sora here?”

“Sora?” a flash of recognition crossed his features as his struggling hesitated, “What do you want with Sora?”

Red flashed behind my eyes and my hand tightened once again around his neck, thin and unprotected. It would be too easy to crush.

“ _Where is he?!_ ” I snarled, bringing my face even closer to his as he gasped for air. “What have you done with-“

A wave of dizziness rushed over me and I lost my breath, my grip going slack as I swayed forwards, caught by the boy’s flailing arms. I clenched a stinging hand around my bleeding side, my knees threatening to give out, head bumping into the stranger’s shoulder as I panted harshly, willing my grip to tighten around his throat, shove the pain down, hide the weakness, follow through, but I must have lost a lot of blood, my head pounding and vision threatening to go dark.

“H-Hey!” the boy gasped as he attempted to hold me up, if for no other reason than to keep me from taking him down with me if I toppled over. “You’re really hurt, I already called the others so just wait until-“

“Ven?”

Another voice came from the darkness to my right somewhere, and I pushed myself off the tree and, subsequently, the boy, attempting to stand on my own two feet and pull a weapon from my boot. But, my legs wobbled, my grace and strength gone, only managing to nearly faceplant had the boy not latched onto me. I wanted to throw his hands off me, but couldn’t find the coordination in my limbs to do it. _I didn’t need his help._

“Ven, who-“

I jerked forwards, palm digging into my torn open side, but this time it was because my vision focused, everything fading apart from who had appeared out of the trees in front of us. I squeezed my eyes shut then open again, staring through my mask, desperate for this to be real, praying that this was real.

“I don’t know!” The boy, Ven, was saying, but it was through a tunnel. “He tried to kill me but he’s bleeding from-“

My elbows knocked his arms off me as I hurried to reach up to tug my helmet off, my fingers weak and my wrist screaming from the abusive pain.

As I lowered the mask, the weight was too much for my injury, slipping out from my shaking fingers to land by my feet. I noticed Ven back away from me, a few more voices and rustling of others arriving from the bushes.

Then, there was Sora, his entire form tense, ready to react if he needed to defend himself or the others, his form froze for a moment before he leaned forward, peering at me through the night.

“B…Bunny?” he muttered, electric blue eyes huge as he looked disbelievingly at me, forgetting how to move for a second before taking a staggering step forward.

“ _Vanitas?!_ ” he said, louder this time, blinking just as I had done, ensuring he was seeing right.

“ _S-Sor-_ “ I wheezed, my wounded leg giving out as I tried to move toward him. He rushed forward to catch me, struggling to hold me up as I clung to his shirt, leaving bloodstains on the white fabric—everything burning, the sight of the treetops and approaching flashlights was going dark, as was Sora’s voice as he tried to talk to me.

“Guys! Over here! V-Vanitas, it’ll be okay, everything will be…”

Slumping against him fully, I drowned in the numbness, falling unconscious.

**Author's Note:**

> (NOTE! I am not looking for critique of any kind: this is just for fun, it's not a college essay here guys lol)  
> Phew, okay!  
> Please look forward to more of this story, as there will be many more chapters full of healing from trauma, rivals-to-sort-of-friends-to-maybe-lovers with a certain blonde haired son of Demeter, and general camp shenanigans.  
> Please feel free to leave a comment, and if you wanna scream with me about Vanitas, find me on twitter @ CassidyLeora!


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